top of page

Visit Saltdean Lido's Heritage Hub!

Our interactive Heritage Hub celebrates the Lido’s colourful history from its star role in Saltdean’s 1930’s holiday village to its secret part in WW2!

 

Find out about the plan to knock it down and build 102 high-rise flats, and the community’s big battle to save it!

 

See original photos, plans and maps!

Interactive Listening Post

Connect with 7 decades of Lido and Saltdean memories at our Oral History listening post – made from a vintage chlorine gas dispenser salvaged from our plant room. Visitors can connect with 7 decades of memories.


Tales include:

 

  • Posing and frolicking in woollen swimsuits

  • The National Fire Service takes over the Lido

  • Ladybird invasion of ‘76

  • Butlin’s Brighton – ‘Nobbly knees’ contests at Saltdean

  • The woman who got stuck in the flume

dom  - listening post_edited.jpg
DOM  - SWIMSUIT DISPLAY_edited.jpg

Cosmeteria

Did you know that in 1938 swimmers could hire woollen swimming costumes from Saltdean Lido in the latest Hollywood fashion?

 

Learn how these costumes helped to give men and women greater social freedom and imagine yourself trying to swim in one of these knitted items – modelled by the Lido’s mannequins,  Frank and Bettie. 

Interactive Touchscreen

Our giant interactive touchscreen will take you on a colourful journey through Saltdean’s history!

 

It will take you back in time to the Ice Age when Woolly Rhinos wandered through Saltdean’s wild tundra and hunter-gatherers left their ancient tools behind for us to find.

 

Learn about Mr Charles Neville and Saltdean’s seaside resort.

 

Discover secret stories about Saltdean Lido and how it played its part in WW2!

 

Watch the restoration videos about how the Lido was brought back to life and how the neon sign was recreated.

dom - touch screen _edited.jpg
Dom - SALTDEAN URN_edited.jpg

The Saltdean Urn

Saltdean has a long, long history! See our 3D-printed Iron Age cremation urn and learn about the boys who found it inside the cliff opposite where the Lido now stands.

 

The original contained the remains of a young person and a pig! 

RIBA2643-14 - lido2 - Copy.jpg
"One of the Seven Wonders of the English Seaside".

English Heritage

THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE

Heritage Fund.png
12-Pilgrim-Trust-logo.png
2560px-Brighton_and_Hove_City_Council.svg.png
Historic England.png
Benefit-fund-Logo-22-10-21_Colour.png
Michael  Bishop.png
GWF-logo-blue.jpg
ahf_logo less white.jpg
bottom of page